In the prior art it is known that the users of a mobile telephone can communicate with other parties over a telecommunications network, and especially the GSM network here, usually independently of time and space. In this connection, mobile telephones have now reached a very high acceptance among users, because it is now possible to make calls from almost any place in the world, at any time.
In this connection, mobile telephones are increasingly replacing public telecommunication stations, such as public telephone booths, which are less and less accepted by telephone users. This is mainly because public telecommunication stations are not found everywhere, and also because usually small change or special phonecards are needed to use such a telecommunication station, for example, a public telephone booth, but the potential users often do not have change or phonecards available.
Furthermore, public telecommunication stations are often subject to vandalism by third parties, so that these telecommunication stations are often not operational when actually needed. Such vandalism manifests itself, for example, in that these telecommunication stations are broken into to steal the cash contained within, or that, for the pure sake of vandalism, device components, such as receivers/keypads, of the telecommunication stations are torn off and removed, resulting in damage to the device.
Moreover, public telecommunication stations are often unhygienic.
The operators of such communication stations in public locations are facing increased maintenance costs, but the income from these telecommunication stations often no longer covers maintenance and other costs. Therefore, public telecommunication stations, such as publicly accessible telephone booths, are increasingly becoming a loss-making business for telecommunication service providers.
In spite of the fact that the tariffs for the use of public telecommunication stations are usually lower than those for the use of mobile telephones in the mobile telecommunications network, the public telecommunication stations are being used less and less.